All-Star Baseball 2003 features:

• All 30 Major League teams
• Season awards like the Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, MVP, and the Gold Glove
• Active dug-outs and bullpens
• More than 50 official stadiums - 9 classic and 10 expansion stadiums
• More than 900 players
• 10 game modes - Exhibition, Season, Career, Franchise, Expansion, All-Star Game, Series, Manager, Home Run Derby, and Batting Practice
• Franchise Mode allows users to play and build their favorite team up to twenty consecutive seasons
• Expansion Mode allows hardcore baseball fans to build their own Expansion team and add that team to the Major Leagues
• Trading Cards which enable users to trade, collect and unlock cheat codes throughout the game
• Requires 151 blocks of data to save during mid-season in Franchise and Expansion Mode

This year's edition adopts much of the elements as featured in previous ASB installments, featuring the all of the MLB teams, rosters and stadiums. There are 10 modes of play including Exhibition, Franchise, Expansion, Season, Career, Home Run Derby, Series, Manager and Batting Practice. Plus, there's even collectible baseball cards to collect for baseball aficionados to enjoy.

By far, the best new additions and what makes this edition stand out are the Franchise and Expansion modes. In Franchise Mode, you can play up to twenty consecutive seasons, which will keep track of stats throughout the seasons, bringing up top prospects, making key trades, and balancing your franchise budget. A simulation baseball game is not complete without awards such as Gold Glove, Silver Sluggers, MVP, Cy Young, and many more. ASB will also keep track of awards won by a player throughout the Franchise.

As expressed earlier, ASB 2003 has a few drawbacks. Among them, being the save feature used for the Franchise and Expansion modes. Both require 151 blocks of data to save...and that's will only get you as far as the mid-season. You'll need at least 51 blocks of data to start a new session, and when that's factored in with the large chunk of data, it's easy to see what an inconvenience this will be. At best, unless you're planning to invest in a third-party memory card, playing through the respective modes will be rather pointless.

All-Star Baseball 2003 retains the same batting interface as last years game. Like in most baseball games these days, they use a cursor system for both hitting and pitching. Pitching is a breeze. You simply choose a pitch from the pitchers selection of pitches, adjust where you want to throw the pitch with the analog stick and press the "A" button to launch the ball towards the plate. A good thing about the pitching is that you can slightly change the direction of the ball to fool the batter while it is in mid-air.

Batting on the other hand is the hardest thing. It's so complex and difficult. Just like the pitching cursor, you can aim the cursor anywhere within the batters box. The cursor is sized in relation to his batting average and his abilities against the pitcher on the mound. Think you can smack 70+ home runs like Mark McGuire? Than press the "B" button to swing for the scoreboard. By pressing the "B" button, this makes the size of the cursor smaller. Make contact with the ball and its bound to go out of the ballpark. If you like taking advantages of gaps, try using the "C" button or attempt to guess where the ball is, which will increase the size of the batters sweet spot. With all these options, hitting the ball is still hard. The pitches goes by so fast once it leaves the pitchers hand, that you have a split second to swing the bat or you'll be giving the pitcher the breeze. A blink of an eye and the ball is already in the catchers glove.

You can adjust your infield and outfield to nine different settings to accommodate your strategy before each pitch and pick off runners either before or after the wind up. Running bases is easy which require you to hold one button or press another. The response of the base runner is horrendous. It takes so long for them to respond. It's as if you never pressed anything. To its credit, fielding is fairly easy - pop flies simply require you to stand under the ball/shadow, for example.

Throughout the years, the visuals have improved greatly and this years GameCube title has shown it has stepped up to the plate. The players are highly detailed, looking like its real-life counterparts. Acclaim has motion-captured just about every possible type of movement present in baseball. Batters walk up to the plate with determination, positioning themselves in their batting stance and swings at the ball in a smooth motion in a ultra-realistic animation. Batters even throw down the bat and charges the mound when they get pegged with a baseball. The fields are gorgeous looking. The game mimics the real stadiums from the colors of the stadium, shades and grass on the field, to the K's in the bleachers when a pitcher strikes out a batter.

The camera actions from multiple angles around the stadium makes it feel like a television broadcast. Instant replay is shown after a major play. The replay also goes into a slow motion view and zooms in on the batter as he hits a ball out of the ballpark. Other types of detail noticed are the dugouts, as players will react to events on the field and mascots will jump out and try to get the animated crowds excited.

The sound is fairly outstanding and the play-by-play commentary comes across authentic and lively. The commentators will provide historical facts, past players-at-bat, as well as statistics from the previous year. On the whole, the baseball atmosphere is faithfully recreated, ranging from the 7th inning stretch theme, the ambient boos and chants and in some cases, team mascots dancing

Overall, All-Star Baseball 2003 is a well rounded simulation baseball game with the tough hitting, slow response to base running and lots of modes to explore. Franchise Mode and Expansion Mode alone, will keep hardcore baseball players busy for months. The only major problem is having to go out and buying a third party memory card if you don't already own one, inorder to be able to save Franchise and Expansion Mode. Every baseball fan looking for a well-rounded baseball game should go out and pick this up.

· · · Bandit